The Shadow Man
by Malus Lupus
Summary: Clara just wanted to find the TARDIS's Library. Just wanted to find a book or two to read. Well, she did manage to find the Library, but what she found in the library- a creepy-sounding poem - might just change her life forever. Prolouge is up. Rated T, just in case. Better to be safe than sorry.
1. Prolouge

**Someday soon**

**Yet also far away**

**My courageous child**

**Will be replaced by the Shadow Man**

* * *

**They all say life's too short**

**But not the Shadow Man.**

**He knows that life's too long.**

**Alas, the Broken Man.**

* * *

**No longer will the Child run and play**

**For he will become,**

**Forevermore,**

**My Morbid Shadow Man.**

* * *

**When the Dreams rebel,**

**The Shadow Man arises**

**From the Ashes and the Flame,**

**A sight of sorrow for all.**

* * *

**But, when it comes, my Shadow man,**

**Do not struggle, do not fight.**

**For the more darkness you absorb, Shadow Man,**

**The more you reflect the Light.**

* * *

Clara was sitting on a bench in front of a shop. She was waiting for Nina to hurry up and get her things so they could just go. Clara amost laughed at herself, thinking, _I would of leaped at the chance to go to London just to shop a few years ago. But here I am now, and all I can think about is leaving! Talk about irony. _But of course, being able to travel with a futeristic alien through all of time and space can have that effect on you. It makes everything you would of leaped to do before seem extreamly dull and boring.

But then, Clara heard a small squeak towards her left. She turned her head, and sort of gawked in horror at what she saw.

Standing there, sort of lurking in the shadows, was a skiny man in his early twenties at most. The man's hair was the darkest black, and went everywhere. His skin would of been pale, but he was covered in dirt, mud, filth, and what looked a bit like dried blood. The man wore only dark colors; a grey shirt, a black trench coat, grey pants, and black shoes.

But it wasn't the man's appearance that scared her, but the look in the man's silvery-blue eyes. There was a very strong and obvious glint in that man's eyes. A glint of absolute terror and fear. But it wasn't just that. The man's eyes just looked... Familiar. Like she's seen the expression written in his horrified eyes before. After staring for several minutes, she realized where she saw that look from. But that was impossible. Absolutly insane, but she couldn't deny it.

She knew where she saw that look before. She saw it only once, on a compleatly diffrent face.

And what face was that? Why, she saw that look on no other than the Doctor himself. And that's why the man's look scared her.

Because her Doctor was the only one who'd ever have the capacity to ever have that look.

First, came denial.

Clara just sat there, staring. _This can't be happening. It's just a hallucination, nothing more. The man's just not there. He can't be. He's not. I don't want him to be real..._

__Next came acceptance.

_Alright, alright! He's real. That man is real. He's standing there, real as everything else. He's really... There._

Then came doubt.

_That's not the Doctor. He might have that same look on his face, but it's not the Doctor. Defenitly not the Doctor. It's impossible for him to be the Doctor._

And last came the fear. The all-consuming fear.

_I've got to get out of here!_

Clara stumbled to her feet, glanced at the man once more, and ran. Ran as fast as her legs would carry her. She would of kept running, too, running from the man, running from her fears, but she had forgotten something important.

She had forgotten Nina in the shop.

Luckily, when she got back, the man had gone. He had just sort of vanished.

But Clara just couldn't stop wondering who exactly was that strange Shadow Man.

* * *

**AN- Hello! I hoped you enjoyed my Prolouge. This is my very first attempt at a fan fiction, so feel free to comment! Most of this will be in Clara's POV, but because she can't be everywhere at every time, so I will switch occasionally. I'm hoping to get an update up at least once, maybe twice a week. But I might take a while if I have writers block.**

**Disclamer: No I do NOT own Doctor Who, or Clara, or any other reffrences I make unless I specify it is mine. Like the poem is mine, so no stealin!**


	2. The Shadow Man's Story

**AN: Managed to get this chapter done early! Hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

"Duck!"

Both Doctor and Clara leaned over and covered their heads as a red beam shot the spot their heads were in only seconds before. They darted into a smallish opening to a cave. As Clara ran ahead, she heard a familiar humming noise followed by a crash. She glanced back and noticed that the cave opening had been blocked by a pile of reddish stones that had fallen from the rock face.

The Doctor sighed and said dryly, "That'll buy us some time. I know I left that key here somewhere..."

As her eccentric friend looked around for his key that he seemed to be losing more and more frequently lately, Clara examined the cave they where in. The red walls glowed with an alien light, like the rest of the planet, so there was no need for a light. The air was much too hot, in Clara's opinion, but according to the Doctor, that temperature was 'perfectly normal' for the planet.

There was a bang and the sound of falling stones echoed through their self-made prison. Clara laughed and said, "Oi, Chinboy, I think your friends are getting impatient!"

The Doctor, ignoring Clara, held up his TARDIS key in triumph. "Great!" he exclaimed. "Time to get off this horrid planet." Clara just laughed again and said, "Was it really that bad? Alright, Queen Reploflag did overreact a bit, but still."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow and exclaimed poutingly, "Overreacted a bit?! She found out my body temperature was exceedingly lower that the normal on this planet, so she planned to use me as a living Air Conditioner. You call _that _overreacting _a bit?!"_

"You can't blame her. This place is just so _hot."_

"You know, Oswin? You certainly are impossible at times."

Clara laughed again and responded with, "Thanks, I try. And why do you keep calling me Oswin?"

The Doctor got that look in his eyes like he's hiding something again. "Just a nickname. You know, Oswald for the win? I think I deserve to give you a nickname, since you've been calling me Chinboy for a while. At least the nickname I gave you isn't insulting or embarrassing."

Clara watched in silence as the Doctor turned the key into the TARDIS's lock, for the phone booth was parked in the cave. Clara knew that the Doctor was hiding something. She had known for a while, but had known not to push the alien to answer her questions. If she did ask all at once, she was afraid that she might never get any answers. She had learned from her excessive time with the Doctor that it was best to ask questions right after an adventure. He seemed to be willing to answer a a question or two after an exciting mission or journey. This time she would ask a question she had wanted to ask for a while.

"Hey, Chinboy?"

"Hmm?"

"Where's the library? You've told me about it so many times, but I still have no idea where it is. It gets boring waiting for you while you're tinkering around with your snogbox-" the TARDIS let out an irritated-sounding whir, "-and I just want to see what kind of books you have."

"Thought you'd ask that sooner or later."

* * *

The Doctor did end up showing Clara the Library. In fact, he even gave her a way to get back to it so she wouldn't have to interrupt his oh-so-important 'work' to ask where the library was. The process was much less complicated than Clara thought it would be. All that the Doctor did was tie an impossibly long string to the consul and tied the other end to the door to the library. It was definitely a long ways there, though. It took them both at least twenty minutes to get from the consul room to the library.

Clara eagerly opened the door to the Library and then just sort of stood there. She scanned the room in awe, for the Library was just huge. Unquestionably the largest room she's seen on the ship before. It looked oddly familiar, though.

The Doctor grinned and said happily, and rather boastful, "Each book in here is either a first copy, given to me personally by the author, given to me indirectly from the author, written by me, or just sort of appeared her one day." He nodded and said, "Feel free to browse! But the cabinet over there and the file on that table is off-limits." With that, the goofball obsessed with boeties slipped out of the door and closed it behind him.

Predictably, the first thing Clara did was go straight to the cabinet the Doctor had declared off-limits. She tried to get it open, and was rather disappointed with the fact it was locked. She'd just have to settle with the file.

Printed on the front in big, bold letters was:

**The Shadow Man**

**Real or just a conspiracy theory?**

Clara opened the file and started to read.

* * *

**The Story of the Shadow Man**

**Back in the Glory Days of Galifraey, everything was peaceful. The Daleks had not yet started the Time War. There was only a few cases of regeneration, for the only reason the Great Race died was due to accidents or sickness. But the planet soon became overpopulated; our race was becoming lazy and vulnerable. But soon something happened to change that.**

**There was a lone child named Ubra. He had trouble making friends with the other children, for most thought him mad. He would talk to himself, speak oddly at times, and tended to say some rather eccentric things. Soon, one other children started to fear Ubra. But he was ok with that. He enjoyed it, even.**

**Ubra was best described as Morbidly Deranged. He spent his free time either drawing his own blood or coming up with ways to kill a Time Lord for good. Stabbing both hearts at once, injections of certain chemicals, drowning, smothering, or simply killing them before the Time Lord could regenerate. He was diagnosed with insanity at a young age, and was often kept in solitary confinement.**

**One day, when Ubra was twenty, still only a child, there was many disappearances. Time Lords and Ladies disappeared without a trace. The many residents of Galifraey turned on Ubra, blaming him, thinking that he had killed the ones who disappeared. Ubra denied all accusations, claiming it was not he, but The Lord President Rassion who was behind all of it.**

**No one believed the madman. Rassion ended up banishing Ubra from all of Galefraey, never to return again. But before leaving, Ubra declared he would return stronger than ever to have his revenge. No one paid him any heed, and life continued as it always did.**

**But Ubra, now called the Shadow, did come back. He returned in a sea of fire and death to seek vengeance on his foe, Rassion, and planned to take over the entire universe after. The Shadow was much stronger than the other Time Lords and Ladies, in this time of peace and lazyness. He would of succeeded if it hadn't been for a very clever Time Lady who's name is still unknown. The Shadow was killed, and everything returned to normal.**

**Or so they thought.**

**The Shadow had been much too strong to kill for good. Instead, he simply went into hibernation. He was was weakened phisically, and was unable to rise from his sleep. Instead, he used small tendrils of himself to posess a Time Lord, thus creating the first Shadow Man. This extension of himself would also become insane, but never as insane as the Shadow, stronger, but never as strong as the Shadow, and smarter, but never as strong as the Shadow. Each Shadow Man was too weak, both phically and mentally, to hold all of the Shadow, but it has been told that after the man who created the Year That Time Forgot, the Master, would be released, the Shadow will finally find the perfect host and the universe will die, screaming.**

* * *

Well. Talk about ending on a happy note.

Actually, it wasn't the end of the file, just the end of the first page in the file. But Clara just couldn't bring herself to look at the rest of the papers. Too many thoughts and questions swarmed her mind. _What is the Time War? Where did this file come from? What does it mean by regenerate? Who is this Rassion? What in the world was the Year that Time Forgot? Who the hell is the Master?_

__And most importantly, _What is the Doctor hiding from me?_

* * *

**AN: And then there was two! I'd really appreciate a suggestion. I personally have no idea how things are going to come out. So if something surprises you, It'll most likely surprise me even more.**

**If you rate/review/anything for this fanfic, you get this amazing sack of potatoes! Yay potatoes!**


End file.
